The Special Recognition Award honors a person - Asian or non-Asian, journalist or non-journalist - who has helped to advance AAJA's goals.

Skip Rhodes

Skip Rhodes is the 2005 recipient of AAJA's Special Recognition Award, which honors an individual - Asian or non-Asian, journalist or non-journalist - who has helped to advance AAJA's goals.

Rhodes is President of Skip Rhodes & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm in strategic corporate and non-profit philanthropic organizational and community activities. He was with the Chevron Corporation for 46 years, where he was Manager, Corporate Community Involvement, from 1986 to 2005, responsible for the company's charitable contributions and community programs.

"Mr. Rhodes' efforts on behalf of his company, Chevron Corp., has helped AAJA nurture the next generation of journalists while expanding the ability of AAJA to sustain a growing array of projects and services for its members and for the communities they cover," said the judges. "(His) involvement has meant that more than $340,000 in scholarship money was awarded by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter and the national organization.

"Every year, for more than 15 years, Skip Rhodes has enthusiastically helped AAJA to do that and much, much more in fulfilling its mission. Few companies, and even more remarkably, few individuals, have shown the steady and unflagging support of AAJA that Mr. Rhodes has. He has provided unstinting support to AAJA, helping it fulfill its myriad goals, asking for nothing."

Rhodes, a former Piedmont, Calif. mayor and city councilmember, is a past president and current member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California, current member of World Affairs Council of Northern California Board and a former chair and member of the Board of Directors for the Council on Foundations in Washington, D.C.